What kind of experience are consumers looking for today? How important is the digital world? Is sustainability still relevant?
Statement by Andreas Hohlmann, Managing Director Germany at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, on the Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier project:
Recruitments, promotions and appointments...
How to shape the future!
Chapman Taylor believes that UK town and city centres must adapt so that they can, once again, become the ideal venue for living, working, shopping and socialising.
Covid-19 will substantially the placemaking industry, at least temporarily. How these changes will actually manifest themselves, is what we asked selected representatives of the industry.
„The reopening showcased our strength as a pan-European platform, as we shared the experiences of each country reopening, starting with Germany in mid-May, followed by all of the countries we are operating in.“
“We created a whole series of protocols aimed at returning the shopping center to normal.”
“It is evident that digital reach for malls will be more important than ever before as the world emerges from Covid-19.”
Recruitments, promotions and appointments...
A 2019 review and how Black Friday has become the most important annual shopping event. All that, and more, can be found in GfK’s study on key European retail indicators.
“Although it is still too early to determine changes in customer behavior, our preliminary assessment after the first few weeks of the reopening is optimistic in terms of sales and inflows.”
“Now, ULI Europe’s latest report, ‘Reshaping Retail–Accelerating Change’, forecasts that the impact of Covid-19 will accelerate the restructuring of the retail property sector, even more so in the United Kingdom.”
Covid-19 has presented property owners and developers with unique challenges, and for Atterbury Europe that is compounded by having operations in three different territories: Romania, Cyprus, and Serbia. Asset manager Vlad Valcea gives some insights into the Company’s strategy.
Retail, from purpose-built shopping centers through to traditional high streets, has been facing long-term challenges, even before Covid-19. And the shift from single to multiple format offers, or mixed-use, is becoming firmly established.
Even though many things are changing in times of corona, the renovation of Quarree Wandsbek in Hamburg continues and even big stores with more than 800 sq m have reopened. Their product ranges already expanded, as “Kreativmarkt Hamburg” signed its new lease agreement in the middle of the crisis.
Has the decline in high street shopping brought about a new opportunity for flexible workspace operators to move into town centers and change the way we all work?
“The economic model of the outlet store is ideal in this period of uncertainty, as it is based on balanced and virtuous relations between brand retailers and property companies, by indexing income to results achieved by the points of sale.”
Shopping centers have been grappling with dwindling visitor numbers due to their online competition since before the coronavirus crisis. Now, many malls are facing an almost yawning emptiness. To ensure their survival, these shopping hotspots have to strike out in a new direction even faster than originally anticipated.
Covid-19 led to mobility restrictions throughout Europe, and the range of measures included the closing of shopping centers. In Estonia, where malls were closed for one and a half months, they have been reopened and visitor numbers are good, but it will take another three or four months to return to the former level, believes Guido Pärnits, CEO of the Ülemiste, the largest shopping center in Estonia.
